So you have a post-apocalyptic story you want to tell? They can be great vehicles for not only personal but social expression, often more so than other SF subgenres. Like most fiction, post-apocalyptic tales are influenced by the current zeitgeist — but also bring something else to the table: a reappraisal of the past and how it influences the present.
During the Cold War, most of those narratives focused on the aftermath of a nuclear conflict; now, we see more stories about climate catastrophes or deadly epidemics (zombies usually fall under the latter category). The mechanism for apocalypse may change, but the themes remain largely the same. How these themes are presented is crucial to exploring this subgenre. Without them, your story may be little more than an adventure with crazed gangs chasing the protagonists across a run-of-the-mill wasteland.
What follows are the essentials of a post-apocalyptic story. I went for macro elements; these can be found in a variety of such stories. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel; The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard; the video games Horizon Zero Dawn by Guerilla Games as well as Fallout 4 by Bethesda; The Walking Dead comics by Robert Kirkman; and the film Mad Max: Fury Road by George Miller exhibit all of these qualities.
